Existing scatterometry analysis methodologies include single-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE-SA) and reflectometry (SR-SA), angular-resolved reflectometry (R-AR), and mechanical-scanning-over-angles SE (SE-scan). SE-SA systems may employ rotating-polarizer (RPE), rotating analyzer (RAE), or rotating compensator (RCE) configurations. Output from a SE-SA and SR-SA systems may merge signals from different angle-of incidence (AOI) and azimuth (Az) angles (e.g. via a numerical aperture (NA) integration process) and send the combined light beam into a spectrometer to produce a time-varying spectra. Those spectra in turn can be used to calculate polarization and reflectivity parameters.
SE-SA and SR-SA may result in a loss of information during NA integration. Angular-resolved reflectometry may be incapable of providing sufficient spectroscopic information. Mechanical-scanning-over-angles SE involves mechanically moving parts of the system to perform measurements at multiple angles with detrimental impact on time of measurements.